jeff it's along story. i took it to a computer shop last friday. they never even ordered the dual head video cards so i had to buy and take to them. anyway they tried to bill me $90 instead of the $45 we agreed on as the owner said there were a lot of conflicts and it took more time than they thought. i said bs and she said ok i'll charge you the $45 but never come in this shop again. i don''t know what she did but the reason i took in is because with my dell 3000 another shop had a hard time. on a dell 3000 i tried to put 2 video cards in and only 1 would work so i didn't want to mess with it. but i know it can be done. why screw with it. i bet you can get someone to do for $20
I am hoping I can be of some service here. I have an older Dell precision I purchased on ebay and I had a similar problem. Please correct me if you will. It is the operating system that supports dual monitors. I believe XP is dual monitor compatible. Did you check two see if your existing video card is a PCI slot. Desktop properties there should be an option for dual monitors listed with your existing video card. My Dell did not have a PCI slot video card so I just opted to use the existing AGP DVI-VGA card. I was also told not to change video card slots and Just use The AGP slot because it will cause problems. The new cards are all plug and play. If your existing card is a PCi maybe just install the other one along side and see if your system recognizes the second card during boot up. If it doesn't than their maybe some compatibility problems or something else. using a Video card that is a DVI-VGA is ok but a little bit of a pain. You have to go in your desktop properties to configure which monitor is your main one. It is convenient to have your trading platform on one screen and charts on the other. I think at this point in my trial and error process it makes more sense to use a wide screen and a smaller monitor for the platform. Again I do apologize if the information I am providing has already been covered. Thanks, John
When the Dell tech tells you, "... your model doesn't support dual monitor...", that's likely a load of crap. Several ETers have been able to get 2350s and 3000s to run multiple monitors and cards. And it seems they've always been alble to also use the onboard video in a multi-card setup. The key is to get the BIOS setting correct, NOT install unnecessary video card drivers, using *GENUINE* maker cards (not 3rd party or clone cards), and reinstalling the OS from scratch, if necessary. If a newer model really did not support multiple monitors, that would be quite a shock.
That may or may not be true. Dualport cards usually have a "preference" as to which port is primary, and sometimes it's a strong one. However, it's worth it to try making the other port primary if it might suit you better. It usually works. (I am currently using as primary, the port the card "wants" to be secondary... to fix a jumping cursor problem.)
XP will run up to 16 monitors. I have a Dell 3300 that will run as many multi cards as I can plug in. No probs. Its a few years old though. No pci-e crap in it.
Maybe someone can explain this. Went into my office this morning, booted up with the extra video card in and same thing....nothing. I grapped a PCI USB expansion card from an old computer and put it in the PCI slot to see if maybe the motherboard was bad. The computer recognized it and installed the USB card with no problem. I then pulled the USB card out and put the video card back in......and it worked! I bought 2 computers and the same exact thing happened on the second one also!! Don't know why it finally worked, but it did!! Thanks again for everyones help. Jeff
Perhaps the video cards were not fully seated before. Also, sometimes things seem to get "electronically stuck" and the USB card un-stuck it.
Quote from bighitter1: when i did mine the lady told me on a dual dvi, analog card the analog has to be the the primary one -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- bighitter I believe the lady was right. I had the same issue, the analog was considered the main one. I did the next best thing after trying two change the order several times I dragged the icons over and done. gnome--Jeff I wanted to add some to your comments pertaining two the card issues. Miss handling the card via static electricity can zap internal computer products real quick. Oil from fingers can affect connectivity on those little gold connectors as well. On a further note I am surprised that the OS did not pick up on the extra hardware even if the card was faulty it should show up on the computer properties as well as during start up unless infact the computer will not honor a second card But what I did not read or hear that was done Jeff did you just try a dual output DVI or Analog card. Maybe the mother board would honor a dual output card but not two?????? If I missed something let me know. JB
The card will indicate its preference for which is to be the primary. If desired, you set the other as primary and drag the icons and taskbar over. Then reboot. Often, Windows doesn't "get it" right away, and you have to drag them across another time or two. Eventually, the system accepts what you have set. (However, sometimes the video card "resists" accepting your choice for primary and requires a bit more coaxing. Then, it remains on the edge of stability such that some little change somewhere will make it revert back to the one it "wants" as primary. When that happens, you're virtually forced to accept what the card wants as primary and work around it as best you can... or replace the card.)